CCAN

 As President proposes slashing 100% of NOAA’s research budget, speakers highlighted NOAA’s vital role protecting communities from extreme weather disasters

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Amid proposed draconian budget cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and as Americans face escalating extreme weather risks, U.S. Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) joined former NOAA assistant administrators and dozens of advocates to rally in defense of the agency on Monday, June 8, on the National Mall. The rally, hosted at Constitution Gardens’ East End Plaza, was held outside a pop-up Museum of Unnatural Disasters. 

Watch the live stream recording on Instagram HERE.

“NOAA saves lives and powers the economy, and we can’t let the Trump administration gut it,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR). “What if the next storm hits while the National Weather Service is understaffed? What if farmers and fishermen can’t get the accurate data they need to make good decisions? I choose NOAA, science, and the American people because they deserve a government that cares about them, their livelihood, and their safety. And I’m not stopping this fight until we win.” 

President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 would eliminate 100% of the funds for NOAA’s research department and cut the agency’s overall funding by 28%. Although the House of Representatives has proposed smaller reductions, any cuts risk undermining NOAA’s critical work at a time when NOAA’s life-saving services and critical research are needed more than ever.

“Cutting NOAA and our government weather forecasting budgets is both expensive and dangerous,” said Monica Medina, former Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce. “Accurate government forecasts are free and help farmers protect crops, utilities prepare for storms, airlines avoid disruptions, emergency managers evacuate communities, and businesses plan operations. With extreme weather events increasing, every dollar cut from forecasting translates into higher costs and real safety risks for every American.”  

“NOAA’s research department has brought innovation, advancement, and connection across the agency for over fifty years,” said Craig McLean, former NOAA Assistant Administrator for Research. “Breaking up and fractionating NOAA research destroys synergies that bring you enhanced fishery forecasts, coastal community resilience and prosperity, weather forecasts you can trust, and climate realities without politics.” 

Meteorologists are forecasting one of the largest El Niño warm water systems in human history to begin this summer. With it will come more deadly heat waves in the Midwest and West and more extreme storms in the South. At a moment of growing climate volatility, advocates emphasized the need to strengthen weather research agencies, especially those at NOAA, rather than weaken them.

“As communities across the country face more frequent and severe weather disasters, cutting NOAA’s research and resources would put lives at risk,” said Gabrielle Walton, Chesapeake Climate Action Network Coordinator. “NOAA’s science and forecasting capabilities are essential to protecting public safety, strengthening resilience, and preparing for the growing impacts of climate change. We should be investing in this critical agency, instead of dismantling it when Americans need it most.” 

Watch the live stream recording on Instagram HERE.

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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC and beyond.

The post U.S. Representative Bonamici Joins Rally to Tell Trump Administration to Protect NOAA appeared first on Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Op-Ed by Victoria Higgins, CCAN Action Fund’s Virginia Director, initially published in Richmond Times Dispatch.

 

Make it make sense: At a time when Virginians’ bills are being hit by soaring fuel costs, yet again tied to never-ending wars overseas, Dominion is proposing what would be the second-largest gas plant in the United States. Never mind that clean energy is both cheaper and its fuel-free, unlimited and unaffected by foreign affairs. You and I will finance this unnecessary three-gigawatt behemoth in Cumberland County, and AI data centers will use the electricity.

Dominion keeps repeating the false claim that “Virginians” are using more electricity. It’s simply not true — residential electricity demand is relatively unchanged in recent years. Over 90% of projected demand is from data centers. In the absence of Big Tech leeching ever more electricity from our collective grid, the insanely oversized Cumberland Gas Plant would look even more like what it is — a cash grab.

It’s a winning formula if you’re a wealthy CEO like Bob Blue, who in 2025 made $15,219,108, including a $4.5 million bonus and $9 million in stock awards. Data centers increase statewide electric demand, your company builds enormously expensive gas infrastructure to serve them, and captive Virginia customers pay you back, plus a handsome profit. Better yet, all of the risk of volatile gas fuel costs goes directly to households and other electric customers.

So if you’re already struggling to pay — or not paying, and risking eviction in one of the highest eviction-rate states in the country — your electric bill, well, that’s a bummer. Dominion is about to add more fuel charges, and on top of that, it wants you to finance their newest enormous gas plant, plus interest, to serve data center electric demand. It’s all just cash under the mattress to Bob Blue and Mark Zuckerberg.

Exactly how much will this gargantuan plant cost you and me? We don’t have the exact numbers yet, but consider that the recently approved 1-gigawatt Chesterfield gas plant, large for a gas plant but diminutive in comparison to Cumberland, is projected to cost ratepayers over $8 billion once fuel and Dominion profits are added to already billion-dollar construction costs. Common sense would indicate that Cumberland, three times as large, could cost us three times as much. Just checking — could you and your neighbors maybe cobble together $24 billion? Zuckerberg and friends could really use the favor.

To add injury to insult, on top of the added costs to your electric bill, gas plants like Chesterfield and Cumberland are an insidious, often invisible adder to annual healthcare costs. Indeed, a Southern Environmental Law Center report found that pollutants like fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the smaller Chesterfield plant would saddle Virginians with an additional $3.5 billion in health costs.

A few years ago, the war in Ukraine sent gas costs spiking. We will continue to pay those fuel costs for decades, because policymakers chose to spread them out over time as opposed to causing sudden short-term increases. This was, of course, before data center demand caused massive short-term increases anyway.

Now, the United States’ foray in Iran has caused oil and gas costs to once again skyrocket (by the way, Shell reported $7 billion in profit last quarter, up 24% from last year). So long as Dominion continues to choose volatile, costly gas over local, affordable clean energy, these deferred fuel costs will continue to stack onto one another for decades — locking today’s foreign conflicts into decades and decades of high energy bills.

What’s maddening is that there is very clearly a better way. Clean energy has rapidly become the lowest-cost source of electricity in the world, with solar and wind costs falling dramatically over the past decade. The International Energy Agency has called solar power “the cheapest electricity in history.” As technology improves and battery storage becomes cheaper, experts expect clean energy prices to continue declining, making renewable power even more affordable for homes and businesses.

The good news is that Virginia lawmakers have wisely chosen to chart a long-term path towards a more stable, clean energy future, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger has made energy affordability a major focus of her tenure. But decision points like Chesterfield and Cumberland test policymakers’ commitment to affordability in real time. Virginia families quite literally cannot afford to keep shelling out billions for corporate profits, volatile fuel prices and endless new data center demand. We must ask that these policies and campaign commitments to people over corporate profit hold fast.

Op-Ed by Victoria Higgins, CCAN Action Fund’s Virginia Director, initially published in Richmond Times Dispatch.

About the author: Victoria Higgins is the Virginia Director for CCAN Action Fund. Her career in environmental advocacy began with Green Corps, a rigorous training program for environmental organizers.

She worked on campaigns with Mighty Earth, Conservation Colorado, and Environment Virginia to hold corporate polluters accountable, pass state climate policy, and limit plastic pollution in Virginia’s waterways.

She received a Master of Science in Energy Policy and Climate at Johns Hopkins University. 

The post Why Virginians Are Paying Billions for Dominion’s Data Center Gas Plant  appeared first on Chesapeake Climate Action Network.